City Offers Its Final Pitch On Stadium

April 24, 1986|By John McCarron, Urban affairs writer.

Mayor Harold Washington unveiled Wednesday what amounts to the city`s last and best offer to aid development of a sports stadium south of the Loop, and challenged the Chicago White Sox to help finance the $255 million venture. ``Here`s the package,`` the mayor said. ``You want to negotiate? Fine. If not, no stadium.``

It was ominous that no White Sox executives were among the 17 city aides and private developers who gathered to present the latest version of the city`s plan at a press conference in City Hall.

Nor were there any representatives of the Chicago Bears, though the mayor`s plan calls for a convertible football/baseball stadium that could be financed only if the Bears participate.

Sox executives issued a statement later Wednesday praising the mayor`s effort, but citing ``numerous open issues and questions`` that are still unresolved.

Most of those issues, of course, involve money.

The Sox, stadium insiders explain, want to minimize their rent payments and maximize their share of parking, concessions and other revenues. The mayor`s developers say privately they need a larger chunk of those revenues than the Sox have offered.

The size of the tenant teams` contribution has crucial implications on the financial exposure of taxpayers. The mayor acknowledged that the city will have to guarantee a portion of any shortfall that might occur between revenues and the annual cost of stadium construction bonds.

For the first time, Washington suggested Wednesday that the city guarantee one third of any shortfall, and that state and county governments also insure a third of any operating losses.

Bear executives were not immediately available, but team owners have never expressed much enthusiasm for the stadium, south of Roosevelt Road at the Chicago River.

The Bears are challenging their long-term lease with the Chicago Park District at Soldier Field, but the only signal they have given regarding a new stadium has been to obtain a contract on 500 acres in north central Du Page County.

Cubs executives, meanwhile, say they still hope to install lights at Wrigley Field for a limited schedule of night games. But the mayor threw some cold water on that possibility Wednesday by denying a published report that he now opposes the city ordinance that effectively bans night games at Wrigley.

Unable to herald an agreement with the Sox, the mayor did produce a dramatic new design for the stadium by Denver architect Charles Deaton.

The mayor`s handpicked developers, Daniel Shannon and Robert Wislow, brought in Deaton, whose credits include the Harry S. Truman sports complex in Kansas City, Mo., which has a baseball stadium and a football stadium on one site.

Sox owners initially demanded a baseball-only facility, claiming a stadium built around football`s larger dimensions would cheat baseball fans of good views of the diamond.

Deaton`s solution is to mount a half-section of the triple-deck stands onto on a huge platform that would float on a thin cushion of air or water. For football, the moveable half-section would split away from the fixed half behind home plate, and then rotate counter-clockwise to the far side of the rectangular football field. A 12,500-seat auxiliary section of stands, to be stored alongside the stadium during baseball season, would be rolled in to overlook the end zone.

Altogether there would be 75,000 seats for football and 50,000 for baseball.

There would be no domed roof, said developer Shannon, since a dome adds about $40 million to the cost. Also, open-air enables installation of natural turf, though the sod will have to be grown in 30-foot square pans that can be shuttled in and out of the stadium depending on the sport being played or convention or concert being held.

However, it is the cost of such a facility, not the design, that looms as the major stumbling block.

Shannon and Wislow said the Deaton plan could be built for $255 million, a figure that includes $54 million in city public works improvements that will be needed adjacent to the stadium.

All the money would be raised through the sale of tax-exempt city revenue bonds.

The key problem is how to raise the $20 million or more in annual debt service on those bonds. The developers hope to raise some $10 million through the long-term lease of skyboxes and luxury seats. But the rest will have to come from operating revenues.